Institutional Affiliate of American Congress on Surveying - CLSA

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Licensing Reprinted from: TECHICAL PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS ON SURVEYING AND MAPPING ASP-ACSMFALL TECHNICAL MEETING San Francisco September 9-11, 1981 Honolulu, September 14-16, 1981 TEXAS SURVEYORS AND A RACE WITH SUNSET Kenneth G. Gold Principal Surveyor, Houston Lighting and Power Company 9222 Carvel, Houston, TX 77036 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH KENNETH G. GOLD is a registered land surveyor in Texas, and is the Principal Surveyor and head <strong>of</strong> the Surveying and Mapping Division at Houston Lighting and Power Company. He received his education at Trinity University in San Antonio and at the University <strong>of</strong> Houston. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean conflict. Ken has been a member <strong>of</strong> ACSM since 1963. He is a past president <strong>of</strong> the Texas Surveyors Association (TSA). In addition to ACSM delegate, he is chairman <strong>of</strong> the Standards Committee and serves on the Texas Mapping Advisory Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, and in other capacities. He has written various papers published by the TSA and has been an instructor <strong>of</strong> Short Courses at Texas A & M and at Lamar University. Ken is married; has three children and one grand^^ rhilH ^ ^ ABSTRACT The Texas Surveyors Association was caught up in Sunset Legislation early in 1977. The paper tracks the steps this Association followed toward overcoming a threatened loss <strong>of</strong> the surveyors' registration law in Texas. The path was blazed through the bowels <strong>of</strong> the State Legislature, the snares and entanglements <strong>of</strong> a bureaucracy and the political intrigue that thwarted every effort, from the dismal beginning to the "cliff hanger" conclusion. (continued on Page 29) Student Notes by Craig A. Lee, President Mary Niederberger, Vice-President Rina Molari, Secretary-Treasurer CLSA Student Chapter California State University, Fresno The spring semester is now in full swing. The student <strong>of</strong>ficers <strong>of</strong> the pr<strong>of</strong>essional organizations have met several times to plan our activities for the semester. Proposed activities include our annual spring picnic and, in April, the CLSA Conference in San Diego. We were asked by Chuck Moore to supply manpower, so several students attended. Between semesters, we held our 21st Annual Conference, which was quite successful. There were about 180 people attending, nine exhibitors, and many fine speakers. In conjunction with the conference was our awards dinner where seven surveying scholarships were awarded. Three CLSA Scholarships were awarded to Jon Lab, Vince Duda, and Jay Goldfarb; the Teledyne Scholarship was awarded to Pete Gustafson; two Conference Scholarships went to Mitch Duryea and Page 28 The California Surveyor — Spring 1982 Kathleen Cline; and the Neil Nelson Memorial Scholarship went to Mary Niederberger. We congratulate them, and extend our thanks to the scholarships' sponsors. We would like to extend our appreciation to Jim Adams who donated $100 to the CLSA Scholarship fund. The Surveying Department at CSU, Fresno, is faring well. At this writing, there are 145 students <strong>of</strong>ficially enrolled in the program. The faculty consists <strong>of</strong> four full-time pr<strong>of</strong>essors: Drs. Fareed Nader, Mushtaq Hussain, John Hatzopoulos, and George Burnham. In addition, there are two visiting pr<strong>of</strong>essors: Dr. Francis Fajemirokun, from Nigeria, and Dr. Kunwar Rampal, from India; and two part-time pr<strong>of</strong>essors: James Arnold and Bill Anderson. The two visiting pr<strong>of</strong>essors will be leaving after this semester, and hopefully will be replaced by two new full-time pr<strong>of</strong>essors. As <strong>of</strong> next fall, CSU, Fresno, will probably <strong>of</strong>fer an M.S. Degree in Surveying and Photogrammetry. Two new courses are being <strong>of</strong>fered: Surveying Astronomy this semester and Survey Systems in the fall semester. Survey Astronomy has always been covered in bits and pieces in each <strong>of</strong> our basic surveying and geodesy classes; now, it is being covered thoroughly in this one class. The Survey Systems class is intended to cover subjects such as land surveying and boundary surveys which are now covered briefly in our other classes. Dr. Nader is working closely with Jim Adams, CLSA's liaison with the student chapter, and Chuck Moore, CLSA's new president, in an attempt to involve CLSA members, who have experience in these areas, as Guest Lecturers. We feel that this sort <strong>of</strong> involvement would be very beneficial to all parties concerned, and hope that it is successful. Should you want any inform, tion on any <strong>of</strong> the topics covered i' this article, please write to: CSU, Fresno, CLSA Student Chapter, P.O. Box 482, Clovis, CA 93612 D
m (continued from Page 28} INTRODUCTION Most surveyors across the country are slowly awakening to the iunset Legislation that is spreading from state to state. Except for some special details relevant to the individual states, the Sunset Legislation in any state is basically <strong>of</strong> similar design. As such, the legislation tries to eliminate waste in state agencies and establishes a "watch dog" posture to monitor most or all agencies by formally reviewing them on a cyclical schedule about once every 10 or 12 years. The legislation normally creates a body, committee or commission to perform these reviews and among its many duties, the commission must decide on a recommendation to the legislature on each agency as to whether the agency should be continued, modified, combined with another, or abolished. The Sunset Legislation usually has one very pointed stinger — it alters all statutory law authorizing or creating agencies by attaching an amendment that terinates or abolishes every agency t some point in time shortly after the reviewing body or commission has completed the examination. Therefore, if no recommendation is made to the legislature about an agency, and no legislation is passed to override the Sunset Law, the agency is caught in the sunset process and ceases to exist. TEXT The Texas Legislature, like all other legislatures, is supposed to represent its constituency. The members are not unlike other politicians in other states, unless they are possibly more boisterous, independent, erratic, flamboyant, unpredicable or dedicated. Most are honorable men and women, but are beset by tugs from special interest groups and are necessarily sensitive to the vocal minorities, consumer advocates and the pressures <strong>of</strong> schedule. They must also gently "tippy-toe" over, and around and through a host <strong>of</strong> campaign contributors and political rction committees to avoid overturning applecarts and igniting vital bridges. The Texas Legislature convenes every other odd-numbered year and faces a deluge <strong>of</strong> three or four thousand bills that must be addressed during the 120 day session, which ends the last day <strong>of</strong> May. It is a sight to behold. There are chques and clans, personal performances, filibusters, cries <strong>of</strong> outrage and indignation, voice votes and the incessent pounding <strong>of</strong> a gigantic gavel — sometimes reminding one <strong>of</strong> the "clacketyclack" <strong>of</strong> a freight train's wheels roaring through the chambers. Out <strong>of</strong> this dynamo <strong>of</strong> legislation came the Texas Sunset Bill. It was 1977 and the Texas Surveyors had been busy conducting a variety <strong>of</strong> educational short courses, developing surveying standards, contemplating building a permanent home, trying to hire a legal counsel, fretting over their budget and even getting their registration law amended during the same session without much attention to what else was happening on Capitol HiU. Late in 1977, the Texas Surveyors Association (TSA) President asked the Executive Director for a run-down on something called the Sunset Bill. When the report was given at the Board <strong>of</strong> Directors meeting, there was a moment <strong>of</strong> silence which quickly evolved to a mutter and then to a disorderly roar. There were great differences <strong>of</strong> opinion as to what effect this legislation would have on the surveying pr<strong>of</strong>ession. It was difficult to believe that this seemingly harmless legislation actually stuck an amendment on the surveyors' enabling legislation and that this reasonably complacent pr<strong>of</strong>ession was now faced with dissolution. The fat was in the fire and there was a tendency to gallop <strong>of</strong>f in many directions. For better understanding <strong>of</strong> the surveyor situation in Texas, it is necessary to review what existed at the time the Sunset Legislation became effective. Most <strong>of</strong> the citizens <strong>of</strong> Texas were not aware that there are three kinds <strong>of</strong> surveyors in the state: The County Surveyor, the Licensed State Land Surveyor and the Registered Public Surveyor — and all <strong>of</strong> them at one time or another have been erroneously referred to by the general public as engineers. Actually some engineers did do surveying work but not under their law, only under an attorney general's opinion, which was an interpretation <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the exceptions in the Registered Public Surveyors Act <strong>of</strong> 1955. This exception had been a sore spot for many years. The County Surveyor is an elected county <strong>of</strong>ficial as provided by the Texas Constitution dating back to 1837. His primary responsibihty is to the County Commissioner's Court for surveys and survey records <strong>of</strong> state or county lands within his county. His only quahfication to perform his job is that he had been elected. Unfortunately the Sunset Law did not affect this position. The Licensed State Land Surveyor was created by the Texas Legislature in 1919, because many counties did not have county surveyors and the county surveyors who did exist could only survey in their own counties. The Licensed State Land Surveyor is an agent <strong>of</strong> the state. His primary responsibility is to the Commissioner <strong>of</strong> the General Land Office. The existing law required the Licensed State Land Surveyor to be a Registered Public Surveyor before he could quahfy to take the Licensed State Land Surveyor's examination. The Registered Public Surveyor was created by the Texas Legislature in 1955 for the sole purpose <strong>of</strong> regulating the practice <strong>of</strong> surveying for the public. The Registered Public Surveyor is responsible to his chent, the public and to the Registration Board and he could be held accountable for his work in a variety <strong>of</strong> ways as was provided for in the Registration Act <strong>of</strong> 1955 or under rules and regulations <strong>of</strong> the Board. The Sunset Legislation had created an Advisory Commission that was comprised <strong>of</strong> four state senators and four state representatives. The Sunset Commission in turn created an investigative and advisory staff. This staff generated sizeable reports regarding the Registered Public Surveyor and Licensed State Land Surveyor Boards. These reports were compiled from investigations and questionnaires in great detail and much <strong>of</strong> the information was The California Surveyor — Spring 1982 Page 29
Page 1 and 2: Institutional <str
Page 3 and 4: £ • Charges Slop on Day Shipped
Page 5 and 6: President's Message Upon taking <st
Page 7 and 8: (continued from Page 5) statement i
Page 9 and 10: Surveyors Historical Society NON-PR
Page 11 and 12: Letters IMPLIED ACCURACY jditor: A
Page 13 and 14: Equipment Corner ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Page 15 and 16: CALL US FIRST BEFORE YOU BUY YOUR N
Page 17 and 18: WESSCO'S SUPERIOR EDM PACKAGE: Reno
Page 19 and 20: (continued from Page 14) resented a
Page 21 and 22: Public Records RECORDS OF SURVEY
Page 23 and 24: conveyance of that
Page 25 and 26: New Members 12/30/81 thru 3/3/82 CO
Page 27: 1982 Conference 1982 CONFERENCE Tow
Page 31 and 32: ing and all the other verbage in th
Page 33 and 34: Legislation by Harold B. Davis, L.S
Page 35 and 36: Advertisers' Index Page No. AGA 10

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